Photographs taken of uncontacted Amazon Indian tribe

[Al-khiyal]

Photographs taken of uncontacted Amazon Indian tribe

BEIJING, May 30, 2008 (Xinhuanet) -- Amazon Indians from one of the world's last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released on Thursday showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.

The photographs of the tribe near the border between Brazil and Peru are rare evidence that such groups exist. A Brazilian official involved in the expedition said many of them are in increasing danger from illegal logging.

"What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilized' ones, treat the world," Jose Carlos Meirelles was quoted as saying in a statement by the Survival International group.

One of the pictures, which can be seen on Survival International's website (Survival International - the movement for tribal peoples), shows two Indian men covered in bright red pigment poised to fire arrows at the aircraft while another Indian looks on.

Another photo shows about 15 Indians near thatched huts, some of them also preparing to fire arrows at the aircraft.

"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct," said Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International, which supports tribal people around the world.

Of more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, more than half live in either Brazil or Peru, Survival International says. It says all are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed and ravaged by new diseases.

[Al-khiyal]

[Al-khiyal]

[Al-khiyal]

May 30, 2008 -- A fly-over of a remote part of the Amazon rainforest spotted members of what is believed to be one of the world's last uncontacted tribes.

The Amazonians reacted aggressively to the helicopter fly-over, with bow and arrows aimed at the plane, according to Survival International, a group that works to protect indigenous peoples.

"These pictures are further evidence that uncontacted tribes really do exist," said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International. "The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct."

The aerial survey was in response to development pressures in the region. Loggers in Peru are displacing indigenous groups living in the Peru-Brazil border region.

"We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist," said José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior, an uncontacted tribes expert from FUNAI, the Brazilian government's Indian affairs department. "This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence."

The Brazilian government says that anthropologists have been aware of the group for about 20 years but that little is known about them.

Meirelles told The Associated Press (AP) that researchers suspect the group is related to the Tano and Aruak tribes. The band may have isolated itself following interaction with miners, loggers, or rubber tappers who often make their way deep into the Amazon rainforest.

"It's a choice they made to remain isolated or maintain only occasional contacts, but these tribes usually obtain some modern goods through trading with other Indians," anthropologist Bernardo Beronde told the AP.

Survival International says that the behavior of the tribe makes it clear they want to remain uncontacted.

Speaking with the Mail Online, Survival's Miriam Ross said tribe members were not painted during the first overflight of their village. During later overflights the tribe appeared ready to fight, carrying weapons and painted red.

"Tribes in the Amazon paint themselves for all kinds of different reasons - one of which includes when they feel threatened or are aggressive," Ross was quoted as saying. "And they are almost certain to feel threatened by or aggressive towards a plane, which was where the photos were taken from. They are almost certain not to understand what the plane is - perhaps a spirit or a large bird.

"The jungle is fundamental to their lives and survival. It's their home, their source of food, the source of their culture etc. Without it, they could not exist as a people."

Survival International estimates they are more than one hundred uncontacted tribes worldwide — with more than half living in either Brazil or Peru — but says these groups are at risk of displacement by developers, miners, and colonists.

While the Brazilian government used to make efforts to contact such groups, today its policy is to isolate them for their own protection. Should they want contact with the outside world it is their own decision.

FUNAI estimates that are as many as 68 "uncontacted" groups in the country, but only 24 have been officially confirmed, according to the AP.

Uncontacted tribes are particularly vulnerable to disease to which they have no resistance. In the past, first contact with the outside world has lead to large-scale die-offs of indigenous people. For example, some anthropologists believe diseases introduced by European explorers in the 15th and 16th century may have killed off more than 90 percent of the indigenous population living in the Americas. Some of the only groups to survive were those who lived or moved deep in the Amazon rainforest.

More recently, at least half the Murunahua tribe in Peru died of colds and other diseases following their first contact with the outside world in 1996, according to David Hill of Survival International. The Yanomamo tribe in the Venezuela-Brazil border area suffered similar losses when miners invaded their territory in the 1970s and 1980s.

Brazil has some 350,000 Indians — the majority of whom live on indigenous reserves which cover nearly 13 percent of the country and 26 percent of the Brazilian Amazon. The extent of Indian territories is almost double the size of all state and federal protected areas and have been shown to be effective in reducing deforestation and the incidence of fire.

Still forest loss in Brazil continues to be substantial, especially as agricultural Growing agricultural production in the Amazon means that commodity prices are increasingly linked with forest clearing. As grain and beef prices surged in the second half of 2007, so did deforestation: after a three-year decline in forest loss, deforestation rates more than doubled between August 2007 and the end of the year. Ambitious plans for new infrastructure projects in the region are expected to drive further agricultural expansion.

[amalgamate]

wow, that is some news. subhanallah.

We were discussing the history of the expansion of the 'new land' and how the Americans forced Indians west of the Mississippi river to take over the territories. Many indians became ill and died from diseases as they were kicked off their homeland. We talked about the 'Trail of Tears' in the mid 1800's.

It would've been nice to show this to my students.

I'm afraid, the way America was imperialist back then, is now and seems will ever be, those native tribes in the rainforests have slim chances of being 'left alone'.


minshuf,

[Al-khiyal]

Finding Brazil's isolated tribes

June 27, 2008 -- Jose Carlos Meirelles is the man who led the expedition that produced the remarkable images of the isolated indigenous people released by the Brazilian government earlier this month.

Speaking to Al Jazeera in his first interview since then, Meirelles has revealed how he found the tribe after spending 37 years working and living deep in the Amazon.

Now 61, he is responsible for finding evidence of dozens of previously unknown indigenous peoples.

He is a "sertanista" – the name given to a select few people who scour the Amazon jungle is search of isolated peoples and then set up a remote outpost to monitor and protect them from contact with "civilisation".

"When we think we might have found an isolated tribe, a sertanista like me walks in the forest for two or three years to gather evidence and we mark it in our GPS [global positioning system]," Meirelles told Al Jazeera.

"We then map the territory the Indians occupy and we draw that protected territory without making contact with them. And finally we set up a small outpost where we can monitor their protection."

To find the tribe, Meirelles had dozens of new GPS co-ordinates he wanted to explore from the air, but budgets were tight so getting an aeroplane was difficult.

Finally the Brazilian National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) and the Brazilian state of Acre - where the tribe had been spotted - provided him an aircraft, pilot, and two photographers.

He could use the aircraft for three days or 20 hours – whichever came first.

"I had years of GPS co-ordinates and a friend of mine sent me some Google Earth co-ordinates and maps that showed a strange clearing in the middle of the forest and asked me what that was," Meirelles said.

"I saw the co-ordinates and realised that it was close to the area I had been exploring with my son – so I needed to fly over it."

For the first two days Meirelles flew a 150km radius route over the border region with Peru and saw huts that belonged to isolated tribes. But he did not see any people.

"When the women hear the plane above, they run into the forest, thinking it's a big bird," he said.

"This is such a remote area, planes don't fly over it."

But the pictures of the huts and indigenous agricultural areas were valuable evidence that the communities were growing, according to Meirelles, and that the policy of no contact was working.

On the last day, with only a couple hours of flight time remaining, Meirelles spotted a large community and numerous women running into the forest with their children. He flew back over the exact area later, knowing the men would be back from hunting.

Upon a second flyover, he captured the iconic images of red-painted tribesmen throwing spears at the aircraft were taken.

"When I saw them painted red, I was satisfied, I was happy," he said. "Because painted red means they are ready for war, which to me say they are happy and healthy defending their territory."

On this expedition he identified three new communities, as well as one community Meirelles said was displaced into Brazil from Peru due to illegal logging across the border.

"Many other states in Brazil have illegal logging that is threatening indigenous people, but not in the state of Acre – there is no logging here," Meirelles said.

"It's coming from Peru, especially mahogany wood, because the Peru side of the Amazon is a no man's land where everything is permitted.

"The Indians are being pushed into Brazil, which causes conflict with Indians already here, but if they stay in Peru they know they will die after contact with loggers."

Meirelles will not give his GPS co-ordinates to anyone - "not even under torture," he says - fearful that if their exact location got out they could be in danger, as even one physical contact with an outsider could kill the entire tribe in a matter of weeks.

He says the pictures and video that are being released to the world are powerful and undisputable evidence to those who say isolated tribes no longer exist.

"Alan Garcia [president of Peru] declared recently that the isolated Indians were a creation in the imagination of environmentalists and anthropologists - now we have the pictures. Now the pictures exist for the whole world."

For nearly two decades Meirelles has lived in an outpost in Acre state near the border with Peru.

It is one of the most remote areas of world and the nearest town is seven days by boat. He has limited electricity, no phones or internet, and his only communication with the outside world is a two-way radio.

For three months of the year he lives in a modest one-bedroom wooden home in the small town of Feijo, itself in one of the more remote corners of northwest Brazil, and this is where he spoke to Al Jazeera.

Being a sertanista and living deep in the jungle is difficult work on many levels. It is said there are only five authentic sertanistas left in all of Brazil – and most of them are older men.

Meirelles was once hurt in the neck by an arrow shot by a tribesman he accidently confronted in the jungle, although he laughs it off as part of the job.

"This region of Brazil [the Amazon] probably has the highest concentration of uncontacted tribes in the world," he said.

He claims Brazil has 69 references to isolated tribes with little to no contact with the outside world – 22 of which have been confirmed, several by Meirelles himself.

Previously the government policy was to integrate isolated tribes into society after contact, but studies showed two-thirds died within months of the first contact.

"That is not contact, that is genocide," Meirelles said.

So he and some colleagues were instrumental in changing policy to "no contact".

"These people have lived on their own for 500 years and that is their choice," he said.

"They can decide when they want contact, not me or anyone else. The policy of FUNAI is protection, we do not want to contact them; to run experiments on them to know about who they are, how they live or what ethnic group they belong too."

"As long as they are there, they are fine."

[Bent_Bladi]

wow...

imagine living there